Dear Campus Community,
Today, the UC Regents appointed UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research Katherine Yelick as the next director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, effective July 1, 2026.
Kathy has served as the vice chancellor for research since January 2022. As the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at Berkeley and a senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab, she distinguished herself as a leader with a unique combination of research experience and institutional knowledge. As vice chancellor for research, she has led a large and diverse portfolio, nurtured talent, and expanded our advanced research infrastructure. Kathy led our campus in navigating a complex and rapidly evolving federal funding landscape as well as exploring new opportunities for support. She ensured that campus faculty were kept abreast of important developments, oversaw campus seed funding for research, and developed other mechanisms to support research activities across the disciplines. She partnered with other leaders across campus to develop plans for strategic directions, including space exploration and technology, energy and the environment, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the use of AI and computing infrastructure.
Since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1991, Kathy has made a name for herself as both a preeminent scholar in the field of parallel computing and as a skilled and effective scientific leader. Prior to her vice chancellor for research role, she served as executive associate dean in the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society. Kathy also spent many years in leadership and management roles at Berkeley Lab, where, as director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, she oversaw a variety of initiatives.
You can read more about Kathy’s achievements and plans in this UC announcement and on the Berkeley Lab website. We extend our hearty congratulations to Kathy on her new role. Her exceptional leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Lab have set a remarkable precedent, and we look forward to seeing the Lab’s continued growth and success under her leadership and guidance.
We will provide further information about the nomination process for the interim vice chancellor for research in the coming days.
Sincerely,
Richard K. Lyons
Chancellor
Benjamin E. Hermalin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
